I received a complimentary copy of this book from Celebrate Lit. This review is written voluntarily. In addition, this post contains an affiliate link which may earn me a percentage of the cost of the book. This will not increase your pricing.
What Color Is God's Love? by Xochitl Dixon Published by Waterbrook on March 19, 2024
ISBN: -13: 978-0593579015
Genres: Children's Picture Book, Christian Picture Books
Pages: 40
Format: Hardcover
Source: Celebrate Lit
Buy on Amazon | Buy on Bookshop
Goodreads
This playful rhyming picture book invites young readers to discover all the ways God’s love can be displayed through a rainbow of colors.
All the colors displayed in this world that God made—
every glorious, fabulous, beautiful shade—
show how good God is and will always be.
But what is the color of love? Come and see!God created all the colors in the world, and in each one, we can discover how great His love is for us and how we can let that love shine to others! With each turn of the page, the focus shifts to a specific color—orange, yellow, blue, green, pink, black, white, gray, brown, red, purple—and explores a different attribute and expression of love through its many shades.
My Thoughts
God Is All the Colors!
The moment I saw the title and cover of What Color is God’s Love? I knew I wanted to be a part of the tour. It gently points to the fact that God did not create colorism because He is all the colors. After all, we are all made in His image and likeness and He loves us all.
I have so many wonderful thoughts about this book and I have been trying for weeks to encapsulate them into cohesive paragraphs.
What I Liked
- Beautiful, huggable, heartwarming illustrations
- Rhyming that is not cliche, just to rhyme
- The apparent thought, prayer, and love that emanates from each page as the author describes emotions and parts of our world that correspond with the different colors
- The message that colorism divides when God created us to thrive–together
- The suggested activity at the end of the book for parents and children
What Gave Me Pause
- Not a thing!
Key Takeway
- My key takeaway was found in the book description:
I’m still not satisfied that I captured all the lovely nuances of the book, but maybe that’s because you should grab a copy of it and see for yourself.
Click here to get your copy!
About the Author
Xochitl (So-Cheel) Dixon, contributing writer for Our Daily Bread and God Hears Her, is the author of Waiting for God: Trusting Daily in God’s Plan and Pace. She loves Jesus and people, as she crosses cultural, generational, and international lines with encouraging and sound biblical teaching. Celebrating diversity and inclusion, she advocates for disability awareness with her beautifully diverse family and her service dog, Callie. Her first children’s picture book, Different Like Me, now available in Spanish, is a 2021 ECPA Christian Book Award Children’s Book Finalist. In March 2024, Xochitl’s second picture book, What Color is God’s Love? is releasing with WaterBrook.
More from Xochitl
The Heart Behind My Story
By Xochitl Dixon
Like most of my writing, What Color is God’s Love? began as an overflow of worship while I prayed and praised God. In 2018, my husband and I followed God from California to Wisconsin. I’m disabled and can’t drive, so his long hours at work left me feeling isolated while I searched for a new church and new doctors. As the weather became more extreme, I grew more discouraged, frustrated, and resentful. I struggled as I wrote my first 31-day devotional for Our Daily Bread, Waiting for God: Trusting Daily in God’s Plan and Pace. I was praying for people, studying and teaching the Bible every day. So, I couldn’t figure out why I felt so out of touch with God.
When my new puppy, Callie, licked my tears away, I looked out the window and noticed the rain had finally stopped. Rays of sunlight pierced through the dark gray clouds, shining on a white heron that had landed in the greed foliage on the creek’s bank next to our front yard. I wept tears of grateful praise. I wrote the first draft of a free verse poem celebrating God’s loving care for the details in Creation and in the lives of His people.
As I prayed, I realized I had been spending time talking to people about God. However, as the physical, emotional, and mental effects of our transition overwhelmed me, I had stopped spending quality time with God. As I watched the white heron take flight, God led me to Psalm 33:6-9, which became the first What Color is God’s Love? Bookend Bible verse.
I released Waiting for God in 2019 and my first picture book, Different Like Me, in 2020. But God had me tuck that free verse poem away as He dramatically transformed me and the original manuscript over the next few years. I wanted to give young image-bearers what I never had growing up: a safe place to process emotions . . . in God’s presence. I also wanted God’s beautifully diverse image-bearers, people with and without disabilities, to see each color as a reminder of His unchanging character, unlimited power, and unwavering grace, as they experienced His unconditional love flowing for them, in them, and through them.
After I signed the contract in November 2021, God began leading me to the right Bible verses to build the messages for each color I shared. Over time, I created the Breath Prayer Cards as a free download on my website, the YouVersion reading plan, and the devotional for the rest of the colors not shared in the reading plan.
I wanted each color to be a reminder of God’s unchanging character, unlimited power, and unwavering grace as we experience His unconditional love flowing for, in, and through us. More importantly, I began praying that everyone who read What Color is God’s Love? would be inspired to open their Bibles and spend more time with God, including me.
Blog Stops
Lots of Helpers, April 24
Texas Book-aholic, April 25
Vicky Sluiter, April 26 (Author Interview)
Book Zone Reviews, April 27
By The Book, April 28 (Author Interview)
Mary Hake, April 28
Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, April 29
Splashes of Joy, April 30 (Author Interview)
Happily Managing a Household of Boys, May 1
Beauty in the Binding, May 2 (Author Interview)
Locks, Hooks and Books, May 3
Sylvan Musings, May 4 (Author Interview)
Guild Master, May 4
Artistic Nobody, May 5
Blossoms and Blessings, May 6 (Author Interview)
Library Lady’s Kid Lit, May 7
GIVEAWAY
To celebrate her tour, Xochitl is giving away the grand prize package of a $50 Amazon gift card, a copy of Different Like Me, and What Color is God’s Love?!!
Be sure to comment on the blog stops for nine extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.
https://promosimple.com/ps/2b144/what-color-is-god-s-love-celebration-tour-giveaway
What’s your favorite type of feedback to receive from readers?
Hi Traciemich, Thanks for stopping by.
I’m looking forward to checking out this book. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Sidlaw0425, Thanks for stopping by. Please do check it out, you won’t regret it.
Thanks for blessing me with such amazing words of encouragement! To God be the glory! I appreciate you sharing What Color is God’s Love? with your readers!
Xochitl, it was my absolute pleasure. It blessed me while reading and I know it will bless others as well.